Ed Brisson of Sheltered and Sons of Anarchy fame has just announced a brand new project over at BOOM! Studios entitled Cluster. The book follows Samara, the leader of a group of cons. Samara is sentenced to prison for her crimes, and then given an option to join to go kill aliens on a planet called Midlothian or stay in jail. Samara chooses to join the military cause leaving her stranded on a planet with a horde of baddies. Damian Couceiro, who has previously worked with Brisson on Sons of Anarchy and Murder Book, is joining the author with illustrations on the title.

Brisson elaborates further on the premise in this quote from CBR who also announced the title:

I don’t want to give away too much, but will say that a lot of the people serving time have bogus sentences. In the story, you can trade your life sentence in for a tour of duty — get out in 15 years. But, what constitutes a life sentence? In a future where both the military and prison system are privatized, where they feed into one another, is anyone going to get a fair shake?

The author also teased that there may be something deeper going on than meets the eye in Cluster:

Our lead character in the book, Samara, is someone who could have avoided being there. Her father is in a position where he may have been able to prevent her from spending time in prison, let alone serving 15 years fighting aliens on a distant planet. However, she’s there because she has a desire to pay penance for what she’s done, something that we don’t quite learn until much later on.